Helpful past
by Something from outer space
Summary: When a government agent from 2004 falls into the thames the last people she expects to meet is the great detective. It is yeat another back to the past but with a very good twist
1. Default Chapter

_Disclaimer: - I do not own Sherlock Holmes or any of the other characters belonging to Conan-Doyle. Anything else belongs to me. _

Helpful Past

She ran through the dark streets desperately trying to escape her presser. Turning down a side street she came to a dead end bordered by a low metal rail on to the Thames. The man chasing her smiled broadly at his trapped victim.

"Come on just give me the bag." He said. She pushed herself up against the railing as he advanced.

"Never. I'd rather die." She yelled. At this his smile widened to show his yellowing teeth.

"Then so be it. I will get the bag from your cold, dead body." He answered. Realising that he ment what he said she cringed. Thoughts ran through her head. Knowing that her only salvation lay behind her she pushed her self against the rails, over balanced and fell into the river.

The shock of the cold water made her gasp and she inhaled the dirty river water. Letting the water carry her down river she concentrated on keeping herself afloat. Soon the river deposited her on its muddy sores and she relaxed. Her clothes were so wet that she had trouble pulling herself away from the bank. When she was far enough away she dropped to the floor exhausted and fell asleep.

She awoke to a swaying movement. Opening her eyes slightly she saw that she was sat opposite a man in a dark coat. Next to her she felt some warm presence. Felling that she was at least for the moment safe she let herself drift of to sleep again.

When she woke next she was still. She lay on a soft bed and was covered with a heavy blanket. Pushing it aside she noticed that she no longer wore her own clothes but a large night-shirt. Starting to panic she got up quickly making her head spin. Sitting still for a moment she heard shouts and the sound of horses hooves on stone from outside. Moving slowly over to the window she was shocked to people wearing Victorian style clothing and that there were horse drawn carriages moving up and down the street. Feeling as if she were going to faint she grabbed hold of the first object that came to hand. Realising to late that it was unstable it fell to the ground.

A few moments later she heard footsteps on stairs. Quickly she picked up the candlestick that was on the unit beside her and hid behind the door. Voices came from outside before the door opened slowly.

"Come out from behind the door, we mean you no ill-intent." A silky, calm voice said. Stepping out from behind the door she still held the candlestick defencively in her hand.

"Who are you and where am I?" She asked. The man moved into the room and then a shorter, stouter man followed him.

"I am Sherlock Holmes and this is my friend and colleague Dr Watson. You are currently in our rooms at Baker Street." Holmes answered.


	2. Chapter 2

The name hit her like a slap in the face. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson and she was in Baker Street.

Her knees went weak and she fell on her bottom. The candlestick she still held fell to the floor with a thud. Thoughts ran wild in her head. How could she have travelled back, or was this a trick of her own mind? Deciding to trust her feelings she lifted her head to look at Holmes.

"What year is it?" she asked calmly as Dr Watson knelt next to her taking her pulse.

"The year is 1901 Miss Carson." He answered. 1901 she had travelled back over 100 years. Realising that he had said her name she looked up at him and grinned slightly.

"You have been inspecting my possessions Mr Holmes." She told him. Dr Watson looked at Holmes, who in turn looked rather put out at the suggestion. "How else would you have known my name Mr Holmes."

"A logical conclusion Miss Carson." He said. "While we are on the subject of your possessions they are extremely unusual…."

"And you out of professional curiosity would like to know what they are?" she asked him. A quick smile appeared on his face. "I suppose an explanation is in order since you were both kind enough to help me. First let me get up." She pushed her self up to her knees and Dr Watson helped to pull her to her feet. She faced him and smiled thankfully.

"We might be more comfortable down stairs Holmes and to say a trifle warmer." Dr Watson told Holmes.

"What a splendid idea Watson" Holmes stepped out of the door and Watson stepped aside to let her pass. As she stepped out into hall Holmes started shouting.

"Mrs Hudson, Mrs Hudson. Ah Mrs Hudson some tea would be nice and perhaps some food for our guest. This way Miss Carson." He said.

"Please don't call me that, my name is Sydney and I would prefer to be called that." She explained. Holmes nodded and led her down some stairs and into a warm sitting room at the bottom. Seeing all of her stuff laid out on the table she was annoyed. The only thing that was missing was her PPK.

"Have a seat." Watson said. Sitting at the table she still eyed her possessions, then turned to Holmes.

"My PPK is missing, I'm right to assume that you have it for safe keeping?" she asked. Before anyone could answer her question there was a knock at the door and an elderly lady walked in holding a tray. The aroma from the covered plate reminded Sydney that she had not eaten anything since the morning that she jumped into the river. Holmes sprang forward and grabbed the tray from her.

"Thank you Mrs Hudson." He said dismissive. The old lady stood her ground.

"I've taken the liberty of finding the young lady some suitable clothing Mr Holmes, they should be here shortly." She told him.

"Mrs Hudson you are a remarkable lady." He answered and Mrs Hudson left. Placing the tray on his desk and poured three cups of tea and handed one to Sydney. "Your PPK is a gun. It is in the draw of the bureau."

"Good I'm glad it is hidden. I will tell you how I came to be in the Thames." She started. "I was working late in the office and I left about half past eight. As I walking towards my car which was parked in the public car park some ten min. walk from my place of employment. As I opened the door a man jumped out demanding my bag. I hit him and ran. He followed me. I turned down a side street and found myself cornered the only way to get away was to throw myself into the Thames." Holmes looked at Sydney.

"You are concealing something from us Miss Carson and I do not like being lied to." Holmes said sharply. Sydney stood so quickly that passed out and fell hitting her head on the table.

Opening her eyes saw that she was looking up at yet another ceiling. There was a taste of brandy on her lips and she pulled a face. Her head throbbed and she moved her hand up to rub it.

"Lay still." A calm voice told her. Moving her eyes to see she saw that it was Dr Watson next to her again. Frowning she rolled away from him and sat up. The pain in her increased three fold. Lifting her hand once again she rubbed her forehead she felt it sticky and warm. Realising this is why he wanted her to lay still she sighed.

"I'm sorry Dr Watson but I hate being told what to do even if it is for my own good, in that sense I take after my dear father. As for lying Mr Holmes, I have not told you something that is not the truth but I haven't told you the whole truth. I cannot because I don't know if I can even trust you. So far I have gone along with all what has happened but this could all be some ploy put together to get me to reveal the information I have. Shit." She cursed. Watson now seized his chance to treat he head wound and pressed a pad do it. Sydney cried out in pain and tried to push his hand away but he held fast. Finally calming down she looked again at the table.

"Miss Carson why do you feel that you cannot trust us?" Watson asked.

"I trust no one, that is part of the job but you two are different. I feel that I can tell you the truth. So please you must be patient and not interrupt me." She explained. Watson sat down beside her on the chair and took out his note pad.

"We will not interrupt you Miss Carson so please tell us all." Holmes said. Sydney looked at the floor and gathered her thoughts.

"My name is Sydney Louise Carson. I work for the British Government. The year is 2004. Sensitive information was being leaked out to terrorists, my mission was to find out who was leaking the information and to find out how many people where involved. I had completed my training only two weeks before but for the sake of my mission I had to have a cover story, which was that I was unsuitable for the training. I was sent to work in the programming department. I was given a program called Locator. Its main task was to sit dormant in a users computer for 24 hours and monitor any information the computer transmitted, no matter how useless it is.

I had been there for two weeks when Locator put me on to an encrypted file in a computer, following to its source I found it on a computer of an innocent person. I downloaded the file and waited. Three days later I discovered another file that was suspicious so I downloaded that also. This time I was discovered by the computer's owner, I made and excuse and left. That was the night that I was confronted. From then on you know everything else." She explained. Holmes looked at her intently for a moment. He suddenly stood up and left the room leaving her with Dr Watson.

Sydney looked around the room taking in the all the books and chemistry equipment. She suppressed the sudden urge to laugh at her predicament. A coughing fit overcame her and she was bent double trying to catch her breath, when she started feeling dizzy she grabbed out for support. Dr Watson was once again by her side.

"Miss Carson are you ok?" he asked. Sydney gasped slightly.

"I feel short of breath and dizzy. I also feel a bit cold." she told him. He went over to the desk and pulled out the stethoscope from his bag. He came back over to her and began to examine her. He was quick and methodical and when he was done he covered her with a blanket.

"You have some fluid in your lungs that is causing you to cough that is why you're short of breath. The dizziness is caused by the lack of oxygen in your blood. Just try taking some deep breaths and you should start to feel better soon." he told her. Once again the door banged open and Holmes stormed in with a letter I his hand. When he saw Watson with the stethoscope in his hands he stopped in his tracks.

"Is there a problem?" he asked. Watson got up from the chair and put this stethoscope away. Sydney still her hand on her chest but was managing to take slow, rattling breaths.

"She swallowed some water while she was in the river. She needs some rest." Watson informed him. Holmes glanced at her again, to him she looked like a sick, petite girl. How in the future does this become a spy. He went back to his armchair, picked up his pipe and lit it.

Watson served up breakfast and they all managed to eat something. When Mrs Hudson came to collect the dishes she placed a bundle on the table.

"Clothes for the young lady Mr Holmes." She said.

"Thank you Mrs Hudson, would you be so kind as to help her put them on?" Holmes asked. Mrs Hudson nodded and took hold of Sydney's arm and escorted her to the bedroom upstairs. While Holmes and Watson sat in the lounge they heard angry protests from the floor above. About ten minuets Mrs Hudson returned with Sydney in tow. She wore a long woollen dress, with a high collar, a white petticoat and little lace up boots. Her long fire red hair was put up into an elaborate design. The look on her face said it all. Both men looked at her with amusement. Sydney tugged the collar of the dress as she sat herself down on the sofa.

"I refuse to ware these clothes! They are uncomfortable and itchy." she complained.

"Your clothes are beyond repair Miss Carson so until we can make sense of this fine mess you shall have to wear clothes from this period. Now will you please tell more about your time period." Holmes inquired. A look of pure horror passed over Sydney's face and she shook her head. Holmes looked totally calm at her response, took one of his pipes, filled it with tobacco and started to smoke it. "Well could you please tell us what the contents in your bag are?"

"Sure what do you want to know about?" She asked as Holmes retrieved her bag from on top of the table. Reaching into the bag he pulled out her silver mobile phone. "That is my mobile phone. It's used as a wireless form of communication. It runs from a portable power cell. May I?" She took the phone from Holmes and turned it on, as she waited for it to load she studied Watson's reaction as Holmes had a fixed expression on his face. The phone bleeped and Watson jumped. "Its okay it does that sometimes. This piece of technology is amazing, when they first came out they were the size of a house brick but as the technology got better the size got smaller and they were able to do more things. Next"

Holmes yet again reached into her bag and this time pulled out a small black bag. Sydney looked a bit sheepish, Holmes noticed the reaction and put the bag down on the side table, he reached into the bag again and this time pulled out a hard case filled with compact disks.

"Those are data storage devices. I use them to store information I have downloaded from my computer. What else is in there? You've seen my firearm and my ID. Credit cards, car and house keys, organiser and chocolate. That gentlemen is the contents of my bag." Sydney told them. Holmes nodded in approval and they all sat in silence. Sydney reached over and pulled the small black bag on to her lap.

"I need to get back to my time period, I have to finish my mission and bring these men to justice." Sydney exclaimed. Holmes nodded grimly at her statement. "I need to know where you found me. I jumped in by Westminster bridge"

"We found you by Westminster bridge." Holmes told her, Sydney smiled and started to laugh, which turned into a terrible cough. Watson handed her his hankie. Her breath came in gasps for a few moments before she slumped back into the chair.

"That's enough Holmes, she needs to rest. Miss Carson you are going to lay down. You have had a big shock." He insisted. Sydney looked warily at him before agreeing with his suggesting. He helped her get up from the chair and up to the bedroom.

A/N Sorry for the delay.


End file.
